Dive Brief:

• According to Turner Ad Sales President Donna Speciale, the reorganization of the division that arrived after a three year process is “basically the beginning of reimagining advertising.”
• The move was made to streamline agency and client partnerships.
• The main change is a new division described as “critical” by Speciale – the Client Strategy and Ad Innovation unit.

Dive Insight:

The new Client Strategy and Ad Innovation unit will be headed by Michael Strober and include two teams. Innovation and programmatic solutions will focus on audience targeting and making sure clients reach promised ROI. Client strategy and development focuses on individual clients and overall strategy.

Speciale told Adweek, "It will be a resource for our sales staff but also for clients because we will be building category insights, which is going to help the conversations and drive deeper conversations and business results for clients."

She added that one result of the reorganization is Turner will become the only media company with “strategic sales leadership” across its entire brand portfolio. Speciale said, "What we're finding is that [agencies and clients] want to have much more business and robust conversations, and in order to do that, you had to bring too many people to the table."

Turner clients had been requesting a more streamlined experience and the new Ad Sales division is expected to simplify the brand conversations by getting the right people at the table across different resource areas.